Jesse Burkett

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Jesse Cail Burkett (December 4, 1868 – May 27, 1953), nicknamed "Crab", was an American professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1890 to 1905 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos / Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, and Boston Americans.

Burkett batted over .400 twice and held the major league single-season hits record for 15 years. After his playing career, Burkett managed in the minor leagues and college. In 1946, Burkett was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Burkett holds the record for the most inside-the-park home runs in MLB history, with 55.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is also regarded as one of the greatest bunters of all time.<ref name="Ghosts pp.69">Flietz, David L. pp. 69</ref>

Early life

Burkett was born in Wheeling, West Virginia<ref name="statistics">Template:Cite web</ref> to Granville and Ellen Burkett. His father was a laborer and painter who worked for the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company.<ref name="OCPL">Template:Cite web</ref> Beginning his professional career as a pitcher, he won 27 games at the age of 19 in 1888 for the Scranton Miners of the Central League. In 1889, he compiled a 39–6 win–loss record for the Worcester Grays of the New England League. He acquired his nickname, "Crab", due to his serious disposition,<ref name=HOF>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="sabr">Template:Sabrbio</ref> and willingness to argue, fight and insult sportswriters, umpires, opposing players, and rookies.<ref name="2015 Fleitz, David L, pp. 70">Flietz, David L. pp. 70</ref>

Career

Early career

Burkett made his major league debut for the New York Giants of the National League (NL) in 1890 as a pitcher and outfielder. His pitching was ineffective<ref name="nemec david profiles pp.10-11">Nemec, David pp. 10–11</ref> as he went 3–10 with an earned run average of 5.57. As an outfielder he had a breakout year with a batting average of .309, good for second-best on the team. He was then purchased by the Cleveland Spiders in February 1891 and played most of 1891 in the minors,<ref name="nemec david profiles pp.10-11"/> batting .316 for the Lincoln Rustlers<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and pitching to a 4–6 record. He played the last 40 games of the 1891 season with the Cleveland Spiders and continued to play for them through the 1898 season. In 1892, he hit .275 and was among the league's top ten players in runs scored and triples. The next season, his batting average increased to .348 (sixth highest in the league) and drew 98 walks (fifth-most in the league). He remained in the top ten in walks in almost every season throughout his career.<ref name="statistics"/>

Burkett was never known as a great defender, but after committing a league leading 46 errors in 1893, he was coached by fellow outfielder Jimmy McAleer to improve his fielding.<ref name="2015 Fleitz, David L, pp. 69">Flietz, David L. pp. 69</ref> Nonetheless, he routinely finished in the top five for errors committed by an outfielder and has the fourth-most errors committed by an outfielder in history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Peak years and batting .400

In 1895, Burkett batted .405Template:Ref label<ref name="cyclopedia pp72">Lanigan, Ernest J p. 46</ref><ref name="sabr records pp142">Society for American Baseball Research pp.142</ref><ref name="hidden game pp.224">Thorn, John, p. 224</ref> and led the NL in batting average, beating Ed Delahanty who also had an average of over .400, and hits (225), which were 12 more than Hall of Famer Willie Keeler. The following season, he set a career-high in batting average, at .410,Template:Ref label and led the league in batting average, hits (240), and runs scored (160).<ref name="statistics"/> His 240 hits were a major league record for 15 years until Ty Cobb hit 248 in 1911.<ref name="hits record">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2015 Fleitz, David L, pp. 71">Flietz, David L. pp. 71</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Burkett was the second player in major league history to bat over .400 twice, the first being Ed Delahanty. The Spiders finished second in 1895 and 1896 and played the Baltimore Orioles both seasons in the Temple Cup series, beating the Orioles in 1895.

Early in the 1897 season, Burkett was hit in the head by a pitch by Fred Klobedanz which knocked him unconscious.<ref name="2015 Fleitz, David L, pp. 72">Flietz, David L. pp. 72</ref> He was out of action for two weeks, but played on May 31, collecting two hits in his first game back. On August 4, 1897 Burkett was ejected from both games of a doubleheader against the Louisville Colonels. In the first game, Burkett and an umpire (Bill Wolf) got into a heated argument and Burkett was thrown out; when he did not leave the field, the umpire threatened to forfeit the game to Louisville. Manager Patsy Tebeau agreed to forfeit the game to the Colonels by a score of 9–0.<ref name="sabr"/><ref name="page 76">Flietz, David L. pp. 76</ref> In the next game of the double header, the arguments against Bill Wolf continued, and by the ninth inning Burkett was ejected again. Similar to the first game, he did not leave the field and two police officers were called in and dragged Burkett from the field.<ref name="page 76"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the 1897 season, Burkett finished third in batting average behind fellow Hall of Famers Willie Keeler and Fred Clarke.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Move to St. Louis and later career

By the end of 1898, the Cleveland Spiders were unable to afford to play in Cleveland and pay their highly paid players, and as a result played 35 of their last 38 games on the road. In the offseason, owner Frank Robison bought the struggling St. Louis Cardinals<ref name="cwru">Template:Cite web</ref> and in March 1898, Burkett and teammate Cy Young were moved from the Cleveland Spiders to the St. Louis Perfectos.<ref name="page 77">Flietz, David L. pp. 73,77</ref> Burkett played for the Perfectos/Cardinals for three seasons. In 1899, he had originally finished the season batting .402 (making him the first baseball player to hit .400 or greater in three separate seasons),<ref name="old time baseball pp.122">Frommer, Harvey pp. 122</ref> but it was later lowered to .396.<ref name="hidden game pp.224"/>

Burkett in 1903

In 1901, Burkett led the NL in batting average (.376), on-base percentage (.440), hits (226), and runs scored (142); this marked the third time he had led the league in batting average. Before the 1902 season, Burkett jumped to the St. Louis Browns of the American League and batted over .300 for the last time in his career. The following year, the American League began to count foul balls as strikes,<ref name="2015 Fletiz, David L, pp. 75">Flietz, David L. pp. 75</ref> causing his batting average to fall below .300 on the season for the first time since 1892. The next year, his batting average fell again to .271, and he had a career low in stolen bases. His errors in the outfield went down, but that was partially due to his decreased range<ref name="2015 Fletiz, David L, pp. 75"/> and fewer opportunities.

In 1905, Burkett was traded to the Boston Americans for George Stone;<ref name="statistics"/><ref name="2015 Fletiz, David L, pp. 75"/> this meant he could be closer to his home in Worcester. His level of play continued to decrease as he set a career low in batting average as Boston finished in fourth place at the end of the season. At the end of the season, he retired. He had the second most career hits in baseball at the time.<ref name="2015 Fletiz, David L, pp. 75"/> He has the highest batting average (.378) and on-base percentage (.444) in St. Louis Cardinals history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Later life

Burkett managed the New England League's Worcester Busters from 1906 to 1915 and played some games for the team, as well.<ref name="minors">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1906, he led the league with a .344 batting average.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Newspapers described Burkett as retiring from baseball in 1916. He secured a position with a brass factory in Worcester in December.<ref name=Day2>Template:Cite news</ref> However, he signed on as a coach with College of the Holy Cross late that month.<ref name=Day>Template:Cite news</ref> In four seasons coaching the Holy Cross Crusaders, Burkett amassed an 88–12–1 record (Template:Winning percentage) and winning regional championships in his first three seasons. Nine players on his 1919 team were designated All-East players.<ref name="HCB">Template:Cite web</ref>

Burkett managed New England minor league teams sporadically until 1933.<ref name="minors"/> He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.<ref name="HOF" /> The Wheeling native became the first West Virginian elected into the Hall of Fame. He was inducted into Holy Cross's Hall of Fame in 2009.<ref name="HCB" />

Burkett died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 27, 1953.<ref name="statistics"/>

See also

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Further reading

Notes

  • Template:Note label Burkett was originally credited with a .423 batting average in 1895, which stood until 1922<ref name="cyclopedia pp72" /> but was later changed retroactively to .405.<ref name="statistics" /><ref name="HOF" />

References

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